The “trial” of Jason Rezaian – an American journalist brazenly held hostage by those trustworthy statesmen in Iran – has gotten under way, and it is exactly the kind of outrageous totalitarian farce you would expect.

Turkish authorities neutralized a woman who was reportedly armed with guns and hand grenades as she and a male accomplice attempted to attack the Istanbul Police Headquarters on Wednesday, Ankara officials have revealed.

In February 2013, jihadists dressed all in black stopped two unidentified men at a Syrian checkpoint and on examining their IDs discovered they were Christians. The militants handcuffed the two men, threw them into the back of a truck and drove them to an undisclosed location some eight hours away.

For the tenth time since taking him hostage, the Islamic State (ISIS) has paraded British journalist John Cantlie as the “host” of one of its propaganda videos, this time giving a guided tour of the contested Syrian city of Aleppo, which ISIS seeks to portray as functional and productive under its control.

Dutch authorities have released few details about the bizarre case of 19-year-old Tarik Zahzah’s attack on the main news studio of television station NOS on Thursday. To get the obvious question out of the way first, the police say there is no evidence that Zahzah, who is half-Egyptian, acted on behalf of organized terrorism.